Flashback: On September 20 Jay Carney Told Reporters White House “Hadn’t” called Benghazi a “Terrorist Attack”

President Obama claimed that from the beginning, the White House held that the attack in Benghazi was an “act of terror.” But this was directly contradicted by his own spokesman Jay Carney several days later. On September 20 – eight days after Obama claims to have called the Benghazi attack an “act of terror” – Jay Carney told reporters that the White House had never called it “a terrorist attack.”

Q: Can you — have you called it a terrorist attack before? Have you said that?

MR. CARNEY: I haven’t, but — I mean, people attacked our embassy. It’s an act of terror by definition.

Q: Yes, I just hadn’t heard you —

MR. CARNEY: It doesn’t have to do with what date it occurred.

Q: No, I just hadn’t heard the White House say that this was an act of terrorism or a terrorist attack. And I just —

MR. CARNEY: I don’t think the fact that we hadn’t is not — as our NCTC Director testified yesterday, a number of different elements appear to have been involved in the attack, including individuals connected to militant groups that are prevalent in eastern Libya, particularly in the Benghazi area. We are looking at indications that individuals involved in the attack may have had connections to al Qaeda or al Qaeda’s affiliates, in particular al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb.

On September 20 White House Press Secretary Jay Carney actually affirmed Gov. Romney’s position that the White House did not call the Benghazi attack an act of terrorism.

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